Strategic thinking that is practical and understood

We are consistently asked by many of our to help ‘do quick piece of strategy work’ which always makes us wonder what the significance of ‘quick’ means. Through the work we have done on strategic thinking, we have realised that there is often an anxiety around spending too much time strategizing, and not enough time doing so our approach applies insight quickly to focus on doing what’s right for our client, not necessarily what all the theories and gurus talk about. Examples of the work we have done around this are as follows:

• We wrote a consolidated business IT strategy for a large two-tier local authority in the North West that spanned Children’s and Adult Services to align all existing IT projects and initiatives with the overall business direction.
• We worked with a London local authority to develop a new vision and strategy for their Music Service (£1M budget) and delivered an assessment of current performance vs best practice to address under-performance. Undertook an options appraisal and selection process for new commercial structures to support self-financing of the service.
• We helped to shape and deliver the strategy and vision for the commissioning function at Midlands local authority. We designed a new operating model with recommendations for a new organisational structure focussed on outcomes-based category management in order to re-structure a 15-person team of procurement and contracts specialists.